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top of the heap to third world status in one generation

Gry

Gry

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Monkey Mom Mom just did jump up on the table, to take up a position where she can keep an eye on me. Before she jumps up to her catbird seat, she is going to expect that I will fuss and fawn over her.

Fortunate to have the dear little things, they do help me maintain a sense of perspective. .
 
M

moose eater

Our aging, wise, 16-year old poodle sleeps along my leg or torso at night, but chronically claims my pillow or spot any time I get up in the middle of the night to piss, or (????). Between stealing body heat, and his genetically engrained duties as a poodle to provide companionship, I fear crushing him in the dark one night when I return to bed..

The elkhound is very needy where attention is concerned, but she's an anarchist if ever there was, probably Black Bloc, and prefers her own room at night, commonly sleeping on my son's bedroom floor, the couch in the living room, or the entryway. As soon as I begin to pluck the tufts of released undercoat from her shedding fur, she implies a serious "Fuck you!!" leaves our room in a huff, and heads to her own space. She resents manicures and anything to do with others removing excess amounts of her fur. I figure she's a serious capitalist, as well, maybe an anarcho-capitalist, really, and views these things as HERS alone, whether long nails or hanging released fur is helpful to her or not. We literally have to give her potent drugs to clip her nails or brush her.

The German Shepherd, true to her breed, typically sleeps near one of 2 doors in our bedroom, as it's clearly perceived by her as her job to be on guard duty, and keeping us safe. She'll get up on my bed and attend to my knees; we can't decide if she and the poodle sense the pain my knees experience, if my body's oil/moisture output is that sweet/tasty, or if maybe the drugs I ingest are exuding through those pores, and they're copping a cheap high. But my knees are to the poodle and Shepherd what whitefish bait is to a lake trout, it seems.

In the morning the Shepherd dog, my admitted favorite buddy, though they're all my best friends, finds something she knows I value, such as my wool hat, slippers, wool socks, maybe one of her favorite toys, and approaches me wagging her whole body, then, when I reach for it, she jerks her head away, playing an obvious game of keep-away with me.

I've had such glorious camaraderie from canines since I was tiny. They've kept me safe, warm, interpreted intent from suspicious persons during ride offers when I hitch-hiked cross-country, and so much more. And they're far more forgiving and compassionate than I often am.

I sometimes hope my time on the planet ends before theirs does. Too many of them in the rearview, and nearly all of them have been my family.
 
h.h.

h.h.

Active member
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Buried one of my dogs a couple days ago. Miniature poodle/ chihuahua. Three pounds of pure joy. Died in her sleep.

Dogs teach us how to cope with life. God spelled backwards.
 
armedoldhippy

armedoldhippy

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Gry said:
Exclusive: The Military Knew Years Ago That a Coronavirus Was Coming
Click to expand...

any intelligent person would have realized that it was just a matter of time. overcrowded living conditions, virtually unrestricted daily intercontinental travel, plus piss-poor sanitation is a 100% lock for health problems ranging from sniffles to death. lots of cash to be made, however, by flogging conspiracy theories to rubes to distract them in the meantime.
 
S

St. Phatty

Active member
Gry said:
If you understood that, then why did not post the content as opposed to repeating the link yet again ??
Sorry, really feel rough, and I need to go out to shop.
Click to expand...

OK. information overload for me I guess.

Exclusive: The Military Knew Years Ago That a Coronavirus Was Coming
The Pentagon warned the White House about a shortage of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds in 2017—but the Trump administration did nothing.
By Ken KlippensteinTwitterAPRIL 1, 2020
fbtwmailPrint
us-military-coronavirus-gty-img
US Air Force airmen help build a makeshift morgue in New York City. (Noam Galai / Getty Images)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.

Despite President Trump’s repeated assertions that the Covid-19 epidemic was “unforeseen” and “came out of nowhere,” the Pentagon was well aware of not just the threat of a novel influenza, but even anticipated the consequent scarcity of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds, according to a 2017 Pentagon plan obtained by The Nation.

“The most likely and significant threat is a novel respiratory disease, particularly a novel influenza disease,” the military plan states. Covid-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel (meaning new to humans) coronavirus. The document specifically references coronavirus on several occasions, in one instant saying, “Coronavirus infections [are] common around the world.”
 
h.h.

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
Gry said:
If you understood that, then why did not post the content as opposed to repeating the link yet again ??
Sorry, really feel rough, and I need to go out to shop.
Click to expand...

His link works. Your’s doesn’t. It show the address twice.
 
Gry

Gry

Well-known member
Veteran
9 False Rumors With Real-Life Consequences

Sometimes a little gossip gets spun out of hand and no one realizes until it’s too late.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/...al-life-consequences?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Don’t believe everything you read—or everything you hear. Unverified but plausible-sounding rumors have been the basis for violent death and destruction throughout history, whether or not the stories had anything to do with the truth.
In their book A Colorful History of Popular Delusions, Robert Bartholomew and Peter Hassall describe rumors as “stories of perceived importance that lack substantiating evidence.” They also note that the sociologist Tamotsu Shibutani describes rumors as “improvised news,” which tends to spread when the demand for information exceeds supply. Such an information deficit most often occurs during wars and other crises, which might explain why some rumors have had such dramatic results. Here’s a selection of some of the most interesting rumors with real-life results collected in Bartholomew and Hassall’s book.
1. King Louis XV Was Kidnapping Children.

In 1750, children began disappearing from the streets of Paris. No one seemed to know why, and worried parents began rioting in the streets. In the midst of the panic, a rumor broke out that King Louis XV had become a leper and was kidnapping children so that he could bathe in their blood (at the time, bathing in the blood of children was thought by some to be an effective leprosy cure).
The rumor did have a tiny kernel of truth: Authorities were taking children away, but not to the king’s palace. A recently enacted series of ordinances designed to clear the streets of “undesirables” had led some policemen—who were paid per arrest—to overstep their authority and take any children they found on the streets to houses of detention. Fortunately, most were eventually reunited with their parents, and rumors of the king’s gruesome bathing rituals were put to rest.
2. London Was Going To Be Destroyed By An Earthquake.

Two small earthquakes struck London at the beginning of 1761, leading to rumors that the city was due for “the big one” on April 5, 1761. Supposedly, a psychic had predicted the catastrophe. Much of the populace grew so panicked that they fled town for the day, with those who couldn’t afford fancier lodgings camping out in the fields. One soldier was so convinced of the impending doom that he ran through the streets shouting news of London’s imminent destruction; sadly, he ended up in an insane asylum a few months later.
3. Jews Were Poisoning Wells.

Reports that Jews ritually sacrificed Christian children were not uncommon during the Middle Ages, but things took a particularly terrible turn during the spread of the Black Plague. In the 14th century, thousands of Jews were killed in response to rumors that Satan was protecting them from the plague in exchange for poisoning the wells of Christians. In 1321 in Guienne, France alone, an estimated 5000 Jews were burned alive for supposedly poisoning wells. Other communities expelled the Jews, or burned entire settlements to the ground. Brandenburg, Germany, even passed a law denouncing Jews for poisoning wells—which of course they weren't.
4. Brigands Were Terrorizing The French Countryside.

In July 1789, amid the widespread fear and instability on the eve of the French revolution, rumors spread that the anti-revolutionary nobility had planted brigands (robbers) to terrorize the peasants and steal their stores of food. Lights from furnaces, bonfires, and even the reflection of the setting sun were sometimes taken to be signs of brigands, with panic as the predictable result. Provincial towns and villages formed militias in response to the rumors, even though, as historian Georges Lefebvre put it, “the populace scared themselves.” In one typical incident, near Troyes on July 24, 1789, a group of brigands were supposedly spotted heading into some woods; an alarm was sounded and 3000 men gave chase. The “brigands” turned out to be a herd of cattle.
5. German-Americans Were Plotting Sneak Attacks on Canada.

Canada entered World War I in 1914, three years before the United States did. During the gap period, rumors circulated that German-Americans sympathetic to their country of origin were planning surprise attacks on Canada. One of the worst offenders of such rumor-mongering, according to authors Bartholomew and Hassall, was British consul-general Sir Courtenay Bennett, then stationed in New York. In the early months of 1915, Bennett made “several sensational claims about a plan in which as many as 80,000 well-armed, highly trained Germans who had been drilling in Niagara Falls and Buffalo, New York, were planning to invade Canada from northwestern New York state.” Bizarre as it may sound, there was so much anxiety and suspicion during the period that Canadian Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden requested a report on the story, which the Canadian police commissioner determined to be without any foundation whatsoever.
6. The Indonesian Government Was Hunting Heads For Construction Projects.

In certain parts of Indonesia, locals reportedly believe—or once did—that large-scale construction projects require human heads to keep the structures from crumbling. In 1937, one island was home to a spate of rumors saying that a tjoelik (government-sanctioned headhunter) was looking for a head to place near a local jetty construction project. Locals reported strange noises and sights, houses pelted with stones, and attacks from tjoelik wielding nooses or cowboy lassos. Similar rumors surfaced in 1979 in Indonesian Borneo, when government agents were supposedly seeking a head for a new bridge project, and in 1981 in Southern Borneo, when the government headhunters supposedly needed heads to stabilize malfunctioning equipment in nearby oil fields. Terrified townspeople began curtailing their activities so as not to be in public any longer than necessary, although the rumors eventually died down.
7. Powerful Aphrodisiac Gum Went On Sale In The Middle East.

In the mid-1990s, the Middle East was home to some alarming rumors about aphrodisiacal gum. In 1996 in Mansoura, Egypt, stories began spreading that students at the town’s university had purchased gum deliberately spiked with an aphrodisiac and were having orgies as a result. One local member of parliament said the gum had been distributed by the Israeli government as part of a plot to corrupt Egyptian youth. Mosque loudspeakers began warning people to avoid the gum, which was supposedly sold under the names “Aroma” or “Splay.” Authorities closed down some shops and made arrests, but never did find any tainted gum. Similar rumors cropped up the following year in the Gaza Strip, this time featuring a strawberry gum that turned women into prostitutes—supposedly, the better to convince them to become Shin Bet informants for the Israeli military.
8. Sorcerers Were Plaguing Indonesia.

In the fall of 1998, a sorcerer scare in East Java, Indonesia, resulted in the deaths of several villagers. The country was in crisis, and while protests raged in major cities, some in the rural area of Banyuwangi began agitating for restitution for past wrongs allegedly committed by sorcerers. The head of the local district ordered authorities to move the suspected sorcerers to a safe location, a process that included a check-in at the local police station. Unfortunately, villagers took the suspects’ visits to police stations as proof of their sorcery and began killing them. Anthropologists who studied the incident said the stories of supposed sorcery—making neighbors fall sick, etc.—were based entirely on rumor and gossip.
9. Obama Was Injured By A White House Explosion.

5d77d2fa6955d.png

These days, rumors have advanced technology to help them travel. On April 23, 2013, a fake tweet from a hacked Associated Press account claimed that explosions at the White House had injured Barack Obama. That lone tweet caused instability on world financial markets, and the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index lost $130 billion in a short period. Fortunately, it quickly recovered. (Eagle-eyed journalists were suspicious of the tweet from the beginning, since it didn’t follow AP style of referring to the president with his title and capitalizing the word breaking.)
5d001cdc87f29.png
This article was originally published on January 15, 2018, by Mental Floss, and is republished here with permission.
 
Gry

Gry

Well-known member
Veteran
Open question.

Was a declaration of war was made against the people of the US ?
 
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